How to Get Away with Murder (Season 5 – Episode 3)

ABC

Original air date: October 11th, 2018

Tonight’s episode continues where its past one left off but with a shot of the celebration first. Oliver and Connor’s reception where several people are enjoying the celebrations, including Laurel who is dancing with baby Christopher. Meanwhile, Michaela demands to know from Bonnie whose blood is on her leg. Bonnie tells her it was from a shaving accident earlier in the day. As a young woman whose never had the perfect shaving lesson for her legs, that’s a huge lie Bonnie just told.

The timeline is now cut back to 2 months earlier. Bonnie is in her office and she spots a note from Ronald that says, “You’re beautiful.” She’s smiles at the nice reminder and then tosses it into the bin. Nate looks at the security image of the unidentified woman that stole the newborn 20 years ago. He still thinks that it could’ve been Bonnie herself or the possibility of someone that looks like her. Meanwhile, Laurel is trying to get Christopher to smile or laugh at her.

Elsewhere, Connor is working on ways to not cut Oliver’s ring finger off because its stuck due to a huge amount of stress of trying to get the wedding together. Michaela drops off paperwork at Tegan’s office, slipping out without being noticed. Gabriel is busy working on his computer when Asher knocks on his door with a toilet paper emergency; before he can open the door however, he has to hide something. Honestly, even the cutest guys hide secrets. Frank watches everything from the surveillance camera he installed obviously puzzled about what Gabriel hid.

Annalise joins the defense team in the case of Niles Harrington. A big-shot CEO who is on trial for murdering his business partner, Andrew. They end up going against the DA Ronald Miller. Bonnie and Crawford are both in the courtroom, to watch how things unravel themselves. The jury seems to write him off as a killer from the very first minute of the trial, thanks to his book, The Psychopath CEO. The way he speaks to women like Annalise and Tegan, well, it just makes you question if there are actual decent men in this world. As soon as she steps out of the courtroom, Annalise is told that because of the Governor’s petty nature, an executive order was placed stating that her students can no longer assist her. For how long? Let’s hope it’s just for this case.

Tegan confronts Michaela after discovering she saw her calender and she was continuing to not mind her own business. Of course since the incident last season, Michaela will continue to get back into Tegan’s good graces. Annalise drops in and has high hopes they are all well rested. Why? They are going to pull an all-nighter and become experts in legal ethics to hit back on the Governor’s Executive Order. She feels if they all study and focus hard for the exam, they should all pass it like it was nothing. It’d be good to have that mentality because the exam happens the very next day.

After unearthing the security camera footage, Nate continues to do some more digging into the kidnapping. He interviews Eileen Colterman, who worked as a nurse at the hospital. At first, she lies to Nate that she doesn’t remember much about that night. The only thing she could recall at the time was that the nursing staff blamed her for the kidnapping because it happened during her shift.

Back in the courtroom, Doris Reid is called to the witness stand by the prosecution, which shocks the defense. She says she lied out of fear that Mr. Harrington would strangle her next. The Judge ordered the jury to disregard what she said but it doesn’t look good for Annalise and Mr. Harrington. Niles plans to move all of his legal accounts to the floundering law firm if they get him exonerated.

While the Keating group are working on the case and Laurel is watching Christopher from the daycare cam, Frank continues spying on Gabriel Maddox via the cameras he set up. Frank breaks in and goes through a duffel bag that Gabriel keeps stashed away. Gabriel is MIA throughout this so its perfect timing. Inside the bag, he finds a stack of cash, an Illinois state ID with the name “Mark Jackson” with Gabriel’s face next the name and an external hard drive. Later, with the help of a hacker friend of his, Frank sets up his computer so that he can see whatever Gabriel is looking at on his computer. Without even getting caught by Gabriel.

Asher talks to Ronald about how Annalise will win the case. However, he has taken note that Bonnie doesn’t want him working in that case. Asher lets it slip out on how him and Bonnie used to hook up. Yes, he’s become that level of salty. Ronald is upset to learn that Asher and Bonnie previously slept together. It creates a fight between him and “Summer Top”. She states that at the end of the day neither him or her are perfect. They end up ending the conversation on bad terms.

Before Nate tells Annalise all of the information he has on the baby, she tells him first that the trial date for his dad’s case is set for next month. Before she leaves, Annalise also tells him that Theresa seems like a nice woman. This is the healthy relationship I like to see.

Annalise returns to the office to find Tegan talking to the Harringtons. Crawford strategy apparently makes sense to Tegan. Annalise steps in saying strangulation is usually personal and reminds them how easy Niles can get peeved and it’d be a ridiculous move for him to b in front of a jury. Emmett tells him to shut up or he will fire him after he offends both Tegan and Annalise. Niles reminds him that he can’t afford to quit this case. Especially after what he did in London. Tegan and Annalise laugh in the elevator about hating all their clients the firm end up having. Tegan reveals all she knows about London is Emmett had some sort of misconduct situation, but doesn’t know if it was sexual or not.

Continuing on her mission to be on good terms with her again, Michaela follows Tegan into her office. She keeps saying she admired and respected Tegan. Now, Tegan strongly reminds her; she gave up everything for this job, but now she is playing collateral damage for everyone and they are way past Michaela making anything right. She’s under a lot of pressure and it shows.

Speaking of Bonnie, she is at home drinking and rejecting calls from Ronald, who is repeatedly apologizing. There is a knock at Ronald’s door and Asher tells him that there is something Annalise wants more than winning this case, showing him the Governor’s new order against Annalise’s students. Annalise pops by Ronald’s car while he is there, offering her a deal of voluntary manslaughter and he gets 10 years for her client. He knows about the students needing to pass the exams. He knows the jury is on his side, but she is known for having a trick up her sleeve like she always does. Annalise smiles in a slight approval for Bonnie’s new man.

Annalise questions Bonnie whether she was the one that told Miller to set her up. Bonnie has no idea since they are fighting thanks to Asher not keeping his mouth shut about their previous relationship. Annalise tries to gently remind Bonnie that “pushing people away will only result in what you say you don’t want.” Bonnie is more than her unsettling past.

Thanks to Oliver’s hacking, he finds an incriminating email regarding Niles’ wife, Bethany. She sent it to Niles’ deceased business partner from her private email account. Diving deeper, apparently Bethany and Andrew were having an affair. Which then leads to the sudden death of Andrew. When Annalise and Emmett confront Niles, he instead reveals that it was Bethany who killed Andrew. Apparently, he’s the true person that might get off Scott free. While the affair was happening, Andrew had told Bethany that he planned to leave his and Niles’ company, and Bethany ended up killing him because then it would be a scar on her and Niles.

The exam begins for each of Annalise’s students in the clinic. While that is happening, Annalise works on Niles Harrington’s case with Crawford. They literally have nothing, unless they go with self-harm, except they have the belt that killed Andrew.Niles refuses to let his wife get locked up even though she committed the crime herself. So Annalise and Emmett come up with a different, last-minute strategy. During the final day of questioning witnesses, Annalise, who is now aware that the murder weapon was a woman’s belt, she asks Niles’ secretary, Doris, to try on the belt that killed Andrew. The prosecution demands that Niles must try it on as well. The result?

1. The belt is much too small for Niles’ waist

2. The belt fits just right for Doris’ waist

Back in the exam questioning room, When Connor is questioned, he gets angry, asking what this is really about. All of his questions seem to be about his supervisor rather than being about a lawyer. That’s what he came to law school for. He simply wants to help people. He calms down and asks them to repeat the question in hopes of passing the exam.

In the courtroom, despite the dull fashion show it’s not enough to convince the jury that Niles is innocent. They find him guilty of murdering Andrew regardless, much to Annalise and Crawford’s disappointment. This could be a blessing in a disguise from a “being stubborn gets you nowhere” standpoint. Niles brushes off their accusations that he sell out his wife and tell the truth about Andrew’s murder. “You’ve never known love,” Niles rudely and incorrectly tells Annalise before he’s taken away by the cops. Again, it’s such a blessing in disguise if I was in both of Crawford and Annalise’s shoes.

Nate discovers that the former nurse, Eileen, is battling Stage 4 breast cancer, he returns to her house and questions her again. This time he’s urging her to clear her conscience. Personally if it were me, I would’ve told the truth right away if my disability situation (see my about me section) was suddenly getting worse, I would’ve told the truth right then and there. However, That’s just me though. She tearfully caves to Nate’s questioning, revealing that a man claiming to be the baby’s grandfather, the walking human form of satan, Bonnie’s dad, had stopped by the hospital and said that the baby’s mother had panicked after giving birth and gave him up. After giving a second thought, she wanted the baby back. Nate shows Eileen a headshot of supposedly a young Bonnie, asking if that was the woman who stole the baby. She says she did steal the baby.

Nate goes to Annalise to reveal all of this information after not being able to say it the first time. Annalise drops a bombshell of her own.

1. Yes, it may be true that Bonnie’s infant son had never died, despite what her dad told her.

2. it may be true that a Bonnie lookalike came to steal the baby from the hospital.

Upon seeing the grainy photo of Bonnie at the hospital for herself, Annalise reveals that the woman isn’t Bonnie at all, It’s her sister.

Oliver reveals he was hired to do IT work at Caplan & Gold full-time. Meaning, Oliver’s ring finger can loosen itself now. Everyone reveals that they passed their exams. Yes, even Connor who’s been on the suspicious level lately. Christopher finally laughs but it was due to Annalise. When she is put on baby duty, he laughs very easily. It could be due to Annalise’s motherly instinct even though she was never fully able to raise her own baby since it was a stillborn.

Michaela catches Tegan’s eye as she walks away from the room. Unsure. Annalise joins here where they laugh at how the jury voted guilty after that as the jury hated Niles more than they did. From that perspective, I completely get it. They see Emmett drinking and figure he can clean up his own mess after the verdict. Tegan is dressed to go salsa dancing. She invites Annalise; but she declines. Oliver notices that Gabriel uses a flip phone. The exact kind that Frank had asked him to clone in last week’s episode. He starts to piece together Frank’s plan in his head. Let’s hope it doesn’t get him killed.

In the flash-forward to Connor and Oliver’s wedding reception, we are back in the bathroom at first as a small recap. Bonnie just lied to Michaela that the blood on her ankle is her own from a shaving incident. However, when the women return to the reception, Connor and Oliver are called to the dance floor. I’s revealed that Connor’s face is bruised and beaten up, seemingly from an unknown event that must have taken place days before the wedding. Things can’t get any worse right? wrong. Oliver is nowhere to be found, despite the wedding DJ’s many calls for the groom to join his husband on the dance floor. Michaela catches Bonnie’s eye from across the room and stares at her. Trying to guess what happened with Bonnie. At this point, she’s allowed to exaggerate and think anything that could’ve happened.

On that note, onto the next post!

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